Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

Storage

Scripted installs

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Everyone installing more than 2 or 3 ESX hosts at a time should start with scripting their installation in my opinion, why?:

  1. it will save time
  2. consistent installations
  3. no need anymore for doing backups of the ESX host
These three should be enough reasons to start scripting. A good place to start is this topic on the VMTN Forums and my Blog post.
One of the dangers most of you will face is the fact that the SAN is attached during installation. So what’s the danger? Well if you’re unlucky the installation will be done on a SAN LUN. This is very hard to prevent in the installation scripts. Because of that Bouke of Jume created a script which removes the HBA drivers from the setup. So if you’re doing scripted installs, and don’t want to unplug your fiber when you do an installation be sure to use this excellent script on your installation media!
Let’s hope Bouke can find some more time and keeps on blogging!

HP just acquired Lefthand

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Well this was bound to happen sooner or later, the only question left was who would be picking up Lefthand. Well HP it is! And it’ not really surprising after Dell picked up Equallogic.

HP today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire LeftHand Networks Inc., a leading provider of storage virtualization and iSCSI storage area network (SAN) solutions.
LeftHand Networks’ solutions enable midsize companies and remote offices or branches of large corporations to easily and cost-effectively protect critical business data. HP has agreed to purchase LeftHand Networks for $360 million in cash, subject to certain purchase price adjustments. Lefthand’s news release, HP’s news release.

I really liked Lefthands appliances and hope this will remain when they are incorporated into HP’s line of products!

Future version of VCB not an installable anymore

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VMware just dropped the news that the future version of VCB will not be an installable anymore. VCB will be an API. This will save you that additional (proxy) host that it will normally cost you. This probably also means that software vendors can take the full advantage of their own unique abilities like deduplication, direct restore into a VM… Agentless backups in a decent way. I’ve always thought that VCB was underestimated by a lot of people, but I guess I did know why. This should solve most of the problems people were facing with the integration modules and scripting.

Expand Virtual Desktops with VMware View

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oSo there have been a couple of major and innovative features and visions released over the last two days. But that’s not where it ends. The official VMworld hasn’t even begun yet and here’s the next announcement: VMware View.

So what will be announced today: VMware View Composer, VMware Offline Desktop and Client Virtualization which all are directly related to VDI.

VMware View Composer – Advanced image management for virtual desktops allows you to:

  • Reduce storage cost and management by up to 90 percent
  • Reduce desktop provisioning from 15 minutes to just seconds
  • Manage hundreds of desktops from a single central image, retaining user settings when updating or patching service packs, application updates or even OS upgrades
  • Roll back instantaneously, enabling customers to streamline management and guarantee that all user systems are up to date
  • Reduce the number of images to manage

VMware Offline Desktop – Access virtual desktops whether online or offline to:

  • Backup critical user data and applications for remote employees
  • Create transparent user environments on the road or in the office
  • Increase user productivity while decreasing management complexity and risks
  • Harness local compute power for a superior PC-like end user experience while maintaining data back ups and settings

VMware Client Virtualization – With virtualization for laptops and desktops PCs you can:

  • Reduce the number of PC images with hardware independent virtual desktops that run on each PC
  • Provide centralized management of VDI users and virtual client users from the same management console
  • Enable users to take advantage of local PC hardware for superior user experience and offline usage

So what more can I say than just wow… and again everything resolves around easier management, automation and reductions in resource needs… And indeed VMware View is what used to be VMware VDI.

update: you can find the formal announcement here.